Tea Time

My favorite teacup, Lady Carlyle!

Oh, I've been so bad lately! I only pop onto Blogger sporadically to catch up with you all, and haven't posted anything for months! Truth is, I've been hanging out a lot more on Facebook and Pinterest lately. I try to keep my "real" identity private, but my Pinterest boards can be accessed through the link on my sidebar (if you want to see all my Victorian pins!).

Every year, we have an annual tea at Eastlake Victorian! This year, we had it later than most. Our goal is to invite our tea-loving friends over for some lively conversation, delicious teas and scrumptious desserts.

This year, I started baking a week early, and either baked or prepared something almost every evening leading up to the event.

Just before the guests arrived, I set the plates and napkins out on the sideboard.

I set out the cookies on the center table.

I opened up the old 1908 White treadle sewing machine, and used it as a serving table for the cakes!

I made two varieties of cakes this year. One was a cake I've made many times before, a Tomato Cake. It's quite like a fruit cake, and freezes well for leftovers.

The other cake I tried was from a new recipe I found on Pinterest, a Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake. It was the best lemon cake recipe I've ever made! I'll definitely be making that recipe again!

I also make 2 different cookie recipes found on Pinterest. The first was a Strawberry Cream Cookie which turned out really well.

The second were Viennese Fingers, which were a pressed butter cookie dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Yum!

I also tried these miniature Fruit Tarts from a Pinterest recipe.

I altered them a bit by filling with a custard I like to make for eclairs, and leaving out the almond meal from the crusts. I wanted the sweets I baked to be nut-free, since a few people who were coming have nut allergies.

I supplemented the homemade sweets with store-bought orange chocolate Piroulines, which I placed upright in a goblet, some chocolate raspberry candies, and some ginger snaps.

And what's a tea without scones? As usual, I made some scones using the Sticky Fingers brand mixes, and served them with blackberry jam, lemon curd and homemade Devonshire cream. I don't shape them into triangles, but plop them onto the baking sheet like drop biscuits. I always prepare these just before the people begin arriving, so they're very fresh and still a bit warm!

We had a variety of teas, including decaf and herbal varieties, for everyone to try.

And as usual, we let everyone chose their cup and saucer!

We set up our 42-cup Westbend pot, which made self-serve extremely easy.

Our tea was an open house, from noon till 5PM. People came and went, and it seemed everyone had a good time!

In all, we had 23 friends stop by to enjoy our tea.

If you'd like to try any of these recipes, here are the links to them on Pinterest:

Mini Fruit Tarts

Strawberry Cream Cookies

Viennese Finger Cookies

Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake